Volunteer Pam Rogan, of Irvine, photographs a name for a mother who called her from out of state to see if her son's name was included on the memorial. The son had committed suicide. The name was included and the mother decided to fly down for the dedication.

Cathie Santee, of Mission Viejo, contemplates the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial. Cathie Santee's son Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Santee's name is on the permanent memorial. He died in 2007 in Ramadi, Iraq.

Volunteer Clara Honea, 83, of Tustin, is photographed next to the name of a serviceman who's makeshift memorial she tended and decorated for years at this site before the permanent Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial was built.

A makeshift flag memorial honoring service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan has finally been replaced with the permanent Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial. It will be dedicated Sunday.

Names of fallen service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were sandblasted on granite panels at the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial.

Volunteer Dale Jelinek helps unveil the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial for pictures before Sunday's dedication. Dale Jelinek made countless calls and massive research to verify the spelling of each the names which were then sandblasted onto granite panels.

Visitors placed dedications to various service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan on the makeshift fence around the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial.

Cathie Santee, of Mission Viejo, points out the name of her son Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Santee on the memorial. He died in 2007 in Ramadi, Iraq.

Construction of the permanent memorial - the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial - began this spring. Volunteers held their last temporary memorial tribute this year.

In this May 2004 photo, Pam Patten, left, of Irvine and Sue Pollard, an Irvine mom whose son Justin died in Iraq in December 2003, hug each other during a memorial at Northwood Community Park.

Andy Zelinko, the Northwood Honor and Gratitude Memorial's main organizer who pushed for a permanent installation, holds up a prototype of a tile at Northwood Community Park in August 2007. Along with Zelinko, dozens of volunteers helped to bring the memorial to fruition.

Andy Zelinko covers the memorial panels to protect them against the elements before Sunday's dedication.

Since 2003, volunteers have lighted candles in honor of each service member killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Candles illuminated the section of Northwood Community Park in this photo in 2006.

Army 2nd Lt. Mark J. Daily, 23, of Irvine, died Jan 15, 2007, in Mosul, Iraq. Daily, who had been married for 18 months before he was killed, had joined the Army after the war in Iraq began in 2003. His name is included in the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial in Irvine.

Marine Corps Pfc. Sean Horn, 19, of Irvine, who joined the military in June 2003, died in June 2004 from a single shot in the head in a bunker at a camp about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. He was 19. The Marine Corps called his death a "non-combative incident."

Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Santee, 21, of Mission Viejo died in Iraq in April 2007. Santee, a Costa Mesa Fire intern, was spurred to join the military after his close friend died in Iraq. Santee wanted to take his buddy's place; he was killed in the same city has his friend, according to his mother Cathie Santee.

Army Spec. Justin Pollard, 21, died from an accidental dicharge of a rifle in December 2003. His family, including his parents Bill and Sue Pollard, reside in Irvine. Pollard, angered by the Sept. 11 attacks enlisted in the Army a few days later.

Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Probst, 26, of Irvine, was killed in Iraq on Feb. 14, 2006, by a bomb near Abu Ghraib. Probst had played football and baseball at Irvine High School, and joined the corps in 2004.

Maj. Charles Soltes Jr., a 36-year-old father of three and Army reservist , was killed Oct. 13, 2004, when a suicide bomber walked up to his convoy in Mosul, Iraq. Soltes was helping build hospitals as chief of a public-health team. A park bench memorial was dedicated at Harvard Square Park in Irvine on Oct. 13, 2009 to honor Soltes.

Marine Maj. Michael D. Martino was killed Nov. 2, 2005, near Ramadi, Iraq when the Cobra attack helicopter he piloted crashed, apparently after being hit by a missile launched by al-Qaida rebels. Martino, who graduated from Woodbridge High School in 1991, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

From left are Andy Zelinko, Rick Win'E, Debi Win'E, Cathie Santee, Pam Rogan, Bob Trujillo, Bob Kohler, Dale Jelinek, Clara Honea, and Carol Zelinko. The group of volunteers were spearheaded by Andy Zelindo, left, to bring about a permanent memorial honoring service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial will be dedicated Sunday at Northwood Community Park.

Andy Zelinko stands in front of the completed Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial at Northwood Community Park in Irvine. It took eight years to realize the memorial that honors all members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan from around the country. A memorial of wooden crosses had been at this site.

Andy Zelinko shows how each name of fallen Iraq and Afghanistan service members was sandblasted onto panels at the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial.

"I can finally look at it without crying, " said Rick Win'E, of Orange, who lost his son Trevor Win'E in 2004 to an IEF blast in Iraq. Win'E and his wife Debi are also volunteers who helped realize the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial.

IRVINE – From the beginning, the volunteers insisted that the fallen wouldn’t be clumped into one group but honored as individual souls.

The soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq and Afghanistan had names. They left behind mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, children and friends who deeply mourned their loss. Their legacies as human beings could never be forgotten.

So to honor those service members, community volunteers gathered for a few months annually at a corner of Northwood Community Park to erect makeshift memorials and light candles. Local parents who had buried their soldier sons, veterans from long-ago wars and residents who simply wanted to pay tribute quietly participated.

Now after nearly eight years, the community fixture has become permanent at the corner of Bryan and Yale avenues. The new Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial, which so far honors the names of 5,714 service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, is to be unveiled at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“If anything, you’re doing it for the person who has fallen and for the families,” said Andy Zelinko, an Irvine resident and a memorial organizer.

HE HAD TO DO SOMETHING

Shortly after the war began in Iraq in March 2003 and the first few American casualties were being reported, Northwood resident Asher Milgrom felt the urge to do something.

On a Friday night, the father of four bought some lumber and built wooden crosses in his garage for each service member who was killed a week or so after the invasion. He and his family members took the makeshift memorials and drove them into the ground at nearby Northwood Community Park, hoping that the city and police wouldn’t take them down.

The wooden pillars – with nameplates, a small candle and a cup for flowers – stayed. And soon thereafter, other residents began decorating the stakes with yellow ribbons, flags, flowers and teddy bears. They continued to light candles at dusk, which illuminated the quiet Northwood neighborhood.

Not long after their son Trevor died in Iraq in May 2004, Orange resident Rick Win’ E and his wife Debi visited the memorial for the first time. Still grieving from his tremendous loss, Rick Win’E said he initially could not go near the makeshift memorial. Instead, he sat on a nearby knoll and wept. Over time, the Win’E family moved closer to the memorial and became active with the efforts to build the permanent memorial, eventually volunteering among others to build the installation.

“Nothing ever brought me to tears before Trevor died,” he said.

As the years passed, dozens and dozens of wooden stakes were added as the names of the fallen continued to increase. And hundreds of residents continued to visit the memorial to pray for the fallen

“It was beautiful,” Milgrom recalls. “It was not organized. There was no politics involved. People came in gratitude and honor. And it stayed that way.”

NO POLITICS – JUST GRATITUDE AND HONOR

Despite initial concerns from the city, the tradition continued year after year, with more community volunteers working to honor the ballooning numbers of troops killed overseas and to build a more permanent memorial in the park. The flickering, somber memorials were set up each night from about Memorial Day to July 4 each year.

From early on, Zelinko emerged as a leader who would push to move forward the process of building a permanent installation. Starting in 2006, volunteers sought to build something that would feature the names of all fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some city leaders protested the idea, suggesting that the memorial be moved to Colonel Bill Barber Marine Corps Memorial Park or be drawn down to include one general plaque. But the group of volunteers said they would not be happy with a generic, abstract piece of art that honored no one, Milgrom said.

“It’s not about the politics and not about the people doing it,” Milgrom said. “It’s about two things: gratitude and honor.”

In January 2007, the city agreed to earmark $150,000 for the project. Volunteers raised about $17,000 for the project, in addition to recruiting community members who could donate their time and resources to getting the memorial constructed. A foundation was formed as a vehicle to raise money for the project and its maintenance.

The process slowed down as volunteers and city officials tried to compromise on an ideal design for the memorial.

Eventually, there was consensus in late 2009, with the city approving the plans for the permanent memorial. The plans included five sentinels with four panels on each that included the engraved, sandblasted names of the fallen. The sentinels, along with a monument near a flagpole, would become lit at night. The ground underneath the flagpole would have four words inscribed: sacrifice, honor, courage and valor.

“The bottom line was that dialogue made this great project happen,” said Mayor Sukhee Kang. “With many people at the table, this became by far a joint effort with the city and the community to find common ground. The city of Irvine has a long standing history of supporting military men and women.”

A TANGIBLE PROOF OF SACRIFICE

The volunteers said from the beginning that the point of the memorial was to honor each of the service members. Each of their names had to be engraved on a panel as tangible proof of the sacrifice and loss overseas.

One of those panels includes Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Santee, a 21-year-old from Mission Viejo who died April 14, 2007, in Iraq. His mother Cathie Santee volunteered at the memorial in memory of her young son, who was part of military police and had initially joined the corps to replace a friend who was killed in Iraq.

Cathie Santee said the memorial was a symbol that “our country values life, it values quality of life.”

Those who wished to help did what they could, spending thousands of hours to bring the project to fruition. For years, Dick Miller, a resident at The Groves voluntarily played taps at the memorial. Irvine resident George Merritt used his own system to verify and cross-check the names of soldiers and Marines.

Joel Bergman, a Laguna Niguel resident, became a volunteer to honor the memory of his former neighbor and friend Army Pfc. Daniel Parker who died in August 2003 in Iraq. Parker, a former Laguna Niguel resident who moved with his family to Lake Elsinore, was just 18 when he died.

“It’s very emotional,” Bergman said of the new memorial. “It represents sacrifice that (Parker) went through along with 5,700 others. … You often hear about someone being killed in action, someone being injured but it doesn’t hit home until you know someone who’s involved.”

Some volunteers worked on the design and permitting process; many others donated materials and time to build the actual memorial.

Longtime volunteer and Northwood resident Pam Rogan, whose son served in the Marine Corps, said she felt a need to get involved.

“The most important thing is these guys are remembered,” said Pam Rogan, whose husband was involved with the construction. “I’m so proud of my city of Irvine, that my city has allowed us to have the first of its kind in the country.”

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